A Closer Look at Ottoman

Bunting! Garlands! Banners!

I've been wanting to make some bunting for awhile; it's so festive just to have in the house. I've also been seeing a lot of posts on the subject lately such as here and here. So, yesterday, when I managed to get a treasury on Etsy (I've been waiting for ever to get one and keep missing it), I decided to investigate what is out there in the world of bunting, garlands and banners. Here's what I found:

Lots of inspiration here! I hope it inspires you too! You can click on the images (there are two combined together) to see them more up close or to get the shop names for further investigation which I recommend.

Happy Thursday!

Flowers Pop....Front Page

It's been fun finding out what plants we have around here since we moved in the fall. Here's a sampling:

I think this is a trillium; it looked much better before Boo and I left for our trip. I'm just super excited we have one! Some of the flowers were white (or maybe they turned purple as they aged?).

I thought Jeff accidentally took these ferns out when removing some plants planted too close to the house in the fall, but they made it through!

The old, abandoned apple tree is blooming; you can see the trimmed branches behind the tree...it took a lot to get it back in shape, and hopefully next year, we'll reap the rewards.

Often when I take pictures, Boo wants me to photograph something. This time, it was this tiny little flower (among others like it), that was so small I needed him to point to it in order to know where it was for the picture. What a cutie.

This is a wild flower that is growing along our dirt road.

So, a couple of days ago, I made the front page of Etsy in a really nice treasury (thank you Dionne for attempting to let me know!):

 

I had to share because it's so cute! I think this is the first time my V2 of my Lichen Collection has been on the front page - yay!

Happy Wednesday!

New in the shop and Wood Type Museum

I sold out of my Lichen for your Wall pieces, so I'm starting to restock (I'll have to order the 3 inch sized embroidery hoop soon...I'm out).

Oh, and I found this incredible site via Craft, Unicorn Graphics has a Wood Type Museum; they also have a Museum of Creative Calendar Design (I love a well-designed calendar). You have to check this out if you are into text!

Okay, so I completed two Lichen for your Wall pieces and I added them to the shop yesterday:

Lichen for your Wall 4 (4 inch)

Lichen for your Wall 5 (5 inch)

I'm off to Jenny's today with Boo...goodness I haven't see her in over a month!

Oh my...I almost forgot! There are still slots available in my giveaway...I think I scared you all off! If you haven't seen it, here's the scoop.

Thrush

I've been meaning to write about Thrush for awhile, as I received (among other things), these cute vintage bowls in the mail several weeks ago:

I think they will be perfect for ice cream this summer. When I look at them, for some reason I think about color harmonies:

Oh, the options!

1. Monochromatic - a scoop of mint chip
2. Analogous - A scoop of lemon sorbet
3. Complimentary - as scoop of vanilla with several maraschino cherries

Oh yes, back to Thrush...

I'm not sure what I like more from this vintage shop, the fantastic pictures or the witty titles.

Such as this:

The Jeanne Moreau Purse

Or this:

The Billie Holiday Gloves

Oh, and the title of my dessert cups? "In June Cleaver's Kitchen"....Eh...not so much! But, maybe when the kitchen is done!

Happy Monday!

New Life for a Terrarium and a Fourth One Too!

Do you recall that one of my terrariums got a little mold or somesuch? Well, I replanted it with all new material, this time with Elfin which is a miniature thyme. I wanted to plant some nursery stock this time and the store that I went to that has a garden center didn't have any moss, but loads of low-growing plants. This plant will only grow to one inch tall - perfect.

It looks a lot like "baby tears." I figured that I'd get good pictures of it in case I kill it too (but the other two terrariums are doing just fine).

This time I had to plant it all the way to the glass to get it all in; I guess I'll see what happens. I think that the terrarium looks really good so far with it crammed full of plant.

I also planted that bizarre glass container that I got from my church rummage sale:

I used Irish Moss on this one (which I'm pretty sure is not a moss because if flowers). It will grow to three inches, but this container has more room.

The container that I bought the Irish Moss in was deep and the "moss" was a dense mat. So, to get it in the terrarium, I had to cut off more than half the roots and cut the "moss" in four pieces. I figure it should fill in fine and it still seems to be thriving after a few days.

I'm using a ring for canning jars to hold the vessel on it's side until I can find something more suitable. Any suggestions?

I'm also starting to prepare our vegetable garden. We've got this weekend to get it into shape before we buy veggie starts. I'm trying to make sure that I buy plants that produce good veggies to can.
What do you like to can? And, do you have any favorite recipes?

Happy Thursday! We're off to Codi's house this afternoon; Boo has been really wanting to see her kids since we got back and she and I have a lot to catch up on! 

(psst...a giveaway!)

I never respond or forward chain letters or email, but this one involves a giveaway and it's sweet rather than threatening (don't you just love those ones that say something like "pass this on to 10 people or else!") Anyway, this is a pay-it-forward giveaway (pay-it-forward may feel a bit overdone or cliche, but it's oh so sweet).

Here's the scoop. I happened to go to the blog City of Dionne at the right time this morning and saw her post on a pay-it-forward project and was one of the first five to respond. Whoever participates makes something for the first five people to comment on their blog, and those five people have to take note of the following to receive their gift:

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.
7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you. (Be sure to leave a working email!)

IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own blog to pay this forward (please do so within 24 hours of my contacting you to make it easy).

The first five to comment on this post and agree to do the following (mention that you are going to do the "Pay-it-Forward" Project" in your comment so I know) will receive something (oh, the possibilities) made by me.

Apparently, gift-giving is in the air; Boo gifted these rocks he found outside to me this morning:

What a love!

Mushroom Pins Listed in the Shop!

I decided to list my mushroom pins in the shop yesterday:

The unstuffed variety...and the stuffed variety:

Happy Wednesday!

Our Trip (Part 4 of 4...I think)

I was just as obsessed with citrus on our trip as Boo was with palm trees. The grapefruit and orange trees were blooming and whenever I went to my sister's house, I drove through the groves with the windows open to let in the sweet scent. Really, there's nothing like blooming citrus. I kept telling my sister and brother-in-law that they should plant at least one avocado tree (they have a sloped backyard), an orange tree, lemon tree and a lime...and why doesn't everyone have these in their yards?

Anyway, thankfully, my grandparents have a lemon tree and a few orange trees and they even had ripe fruit on them as well as blooms:

So, I decided to make some candied citrus peel, using another Martha recipe:

 

The recipe is a lot of work for a small amount of citrus peel, so I added more peel than what it called for. I think it was two oranges and four lemons (I didn't use all the citrus in the picture).

 

This is a great candy to top ice cream for a great gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free dessert! (I have a lot of people close to me with allergies/intolerances.)

While I was making the candied citrus peel, my mom walked by and said "hey, those two together look like an "O." So, after they were all done, I couldn't help myself and made the whole alphabet.

Our Trip (Part 3 of 4...I think)

I tried to get some cooking out of my system while using my parents' fully-functioning kitchen. I also went to my grandparents' house to learn how my grandmother makes her famous dumplings; they are a French-Canadian variety with cinnamon and cloves as the seasoning:

Here they are rolled out and with the filling (pork) added. I ended up rolling the dough thinner on a lot of these after the picture was taken and making two instead of one. I actually needed to make them even thinner than that; I'm impressed how my grandmother can roll the dough paper-thin and put even more filling in them than I did (according to my father, the expert) and keep them together! I guess she has many more years of practice...I'd better hop to it!

Here are half of the dumplings made, with the other half of the dough ready to be rolled out.

Here's Boo's dumpling; he wanted to get in on the cooking (I love that he loves to cook) and my grandmother gave him some scrap dough and some filling and they basically played with it like play dough (my grandmother acts like such a kid...love that). This one actually ended up in the garbage because it landed on the floor. I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get any images of finished dumplings; I guess I'll have to make some more soon!

I also finally got to making marshmallows on the trip. I used this recipe, but part of it must be missing (so unexpected from Martha) because it doesn't state what kind of a pan to line the parchment paper with or how to keep the marshmallow from sticking to the parchment paper (yeah...it stuck to it and it was like skinning an animal, not that I've done that before, to get it off), but they turned out lovely with an interesting texture:

My parents' mantle was perfect to photograph these...it was decorated with cute Easter stuff.

After all the build up to make these, they were a bit too sweet in hot cocoa. However, they were great by themselves. I often cut sugar in half in cookie recipes and such, but it's sort of difficult to cut out the sugar on something that's almost entirely sugar...so maybe a dunk in dark chocolate would be nice!

Oh yes, and you may have noticed that they aren't tinted like the ones in the recipe; I also altered the recipe a little and substituted 1/4 cup of the corn syrup with honey. The marshmallows had the delicious scent of honey and vanilla.

Happy Tuesday!

Our Trip (Part 2 of 4...I think)

The night before Easter, Boo and I (along with my parents and my youngest sister) went to my sister's house to dye eggs and decorate sugar cookies. I decided to give up my Type A tendencies and let Boo just have fun doing whatever he wanted with the eggs.

Here's the "before" egg-dying station (for only two kids!):

Boo started dying very delicately:

Then he decided to get his hands dirty:

And it's a good impromptu lesson on color mixing.

With all his eggs dunked numerous times and all the colors mixed up...they actually didn't all look the same:

Boo was pretty excited about the turquoise he'd made.

The cookies were a bit rushed and the kids were going crazy to have us ice them so that they could put sprinkles on them, so they were a bit wonky. What the heck...they tasted the same (which we decided was way to sweet for all of the adults, we were more interested in the dough):

The sprinkles got a bit crazy at the end with basically dumping the remainder on:

A little Easter, a little Mardi Gras...what the heck, a collision of the pre and post Lent celebrations!